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Monday, February 29, 2016

Globe Trotter and Multi-Mansion Dweller Leo DiCaprio Warns 'Climate Change is Real':
When accepting the best actor award for his lead role in The Revenant during Sunday's 88th Academy Awards, Leonardo DiCaprio used his time to give an impassioned speech on climate change and the urgent need to face the biggest 'threat' to humanity. Looking on in approval was Vice President Joe Biden who joined in the applause for DiCaprio's first-ever Oscar win.

Clinton Blocks Reporters From Asking Questions:
It has been almost three months since reporters traveling with Hillary Clinton have been allowed to ask the would-be president a question. According to NBC News, Clinton has not taken a single question from the traveling press corps in 87 days.

Friday, February 26, 2016

When will liberal Democrat Tom Wolf get the message that Pennsylvania residents already pay enough in taxes? From his first day in office, all he's wanted to do is spend billions more and tax everything that moves in Pennsylvania. The result? His job approval numbers continue to slip.

That’s been the central question in Pennsylvania politics for a half-dozen years. But from Gov. Tom Corbett’s first budget to Gov. Tom Wolf’s election — and since — myths have dominated the debate.

During his campaign, Wolf ran on the myth that his predecessor “cut $1 billion” from public schools. The reality, however, is federal funding always known to be temporary expired. Those funds were never designed to be included in the permanent education budget.

Late last year, Wolf claimed the legislature cut $95 million from education, when lawmakers actually voted to increase funding by $400 million.

Most recently, the governor threatened that 23,000 teachers will be laid off unless his budget is enacted. PolitiFact PA rated this claim “mostly false.”

But what about the big question: Are we underfunding public education?

The answer is simple: No. Any suggestion to the contrary belies the facts.

How can I be so confident? Both the federal government and the nation’s largest teachers’ union agree.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) — a division of the U.S. Department of Education — ranks Pennsylvania’s per-student revenue 10th in the nation. Schools in the commonwealth receive $15,500 per student, roughly $3,400 more than the national average.

The National Education Association — a nationwide teachers’ union and a persistent advocate for increased education spending — goes even further, ranking Pennsylvania 6th in the nation in per-pupil revenue in 2014.

How does ranking in the top 20 percent — or higher — constitute a funding “crisis”?
Some say the problem is Pennsylvania’s state taxpayers don’t adequately support public schools, leaving local taxpayers on the hook.

While local school revenue is notably high (6th in the nation), state revenue per student also exceeds the national average — ranking 24th-highest in the country, according to NCES.

Why, then, does Gov. Wolf repeatedly claim Pennsylvania ranks 45th in state support of public schools? This rhetorical sleight-of-hand refers to education spending in percentages, not dollars.

Would you rather have 50 percent of a dime or 36 percent of a dollar? Right now, state taxpayers provide the latter, paying more than a third of a total figure that significantly exceeds the national average.

You’ve probably heard about Pennsylvania’s largest-in-the-nation funding gap between wealthy and poor districts. Isn’t that reason enough to boost funding? While the discrepancies in district spending are higher in Pennsylvania than in other states, there is more to the story.

The NCES recently organized each state’s school districts into four quartiles of family income. In each quartile — even among high-poverty districts — Pennsylvania exceeds the national average in spending per student. The discrepancy arises only because some affluent Pennsylvania districts raise enormous levels of local taxes to fund their schools.

The current method for distributing school funding is too rigid and fails to account for enrollment changes or students’ unique learning needs. If we want to get dollars to students who need them, a new funding formula — like what a bipartisan commission proposed last year — is critical.

Last summer, Wolf vetoed a budget plan that would have enacted the formula.

Ask any school board member the biggest cost driver in education, and they’ll point to pensions without batting an eye.

Unfortunately, Wolf vetoed a pension reform bill that would have helped control these costs in the future.

Still another way to make sure funding reaches students is through school choice, funded by tax credit scholarship programs. Sadly, Wolf froze these programs until the last possible second in 2015, which threatened many schools’ very existence. And Wolf continues to be a staunch opponent of choice, targeting public charter and cyber schools for funding cuts.

Here’s the upshot: The next time you hear claims that the commonwealth underfunds education, look beyond the rhetoric to the facts.

Can Pennsylvania do better when it comes to educating our children? Absolutely. But playing “myths for money” will never lead to real solutions for families and students.

D.C. College Students Can't Identify Reagan… OR JOE BIDEN!:
Today's high school graduates are entering college with a frighteningly low knowledge of American history and apparently they're not learning much more once they arrive at university. Video after video of college students failing to identify previous presidents or political figures continue to flood the Internet, and in this latest from PoliTech, a political organization out of Lubbock, Texas, has them at George Mason University -- in the nation's capitol, no less -- to see how much they know about American politics. And it's totally depressing.

Hillary: If Elected, I Would Be a Political Outsider:
Hillary Clinton was a guest on CBS News' 'Face the Nation' on Sunday and claimed that she would be a political outside if she was elected the first woman president. 'I cannot imagine anyone being more of an outsider than the first woman president, I mean really, let's think about it,' the Clinton.

National Poll: Sanders Overtakes Hillary:
A new national poll of Democrat primary voters has Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders leading battle-worn former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the first time. The Fox News survey has Sanders with 47% of the vote, while Hillary has support from 44% of Democrat primary voters. But another new poll finds Clinton maintaining a lead in the race for the Democrat nomination.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

A Suffolk University/USA Today national poll of likely voters released today shows Hillary Clinton leads Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders 50 percent to 40 percent among Democrats and Democratic leaning-voters, with 10 percent still undecided. Clinton's lead has shrunk dramatically. The same poll had Clinton up by 27 points just two months ago.

Twitter announces 'trust and safety' panel to police content: Twitter on Tuesday announced the formation of a new “Trust and Safety Council,” which will work to develop policies censoring speech on the site. The group will be comprised of more than 40 organizations from 13 regions around the world. “With hundreds of millions of tweets sent per day, the volume of content on Twitter is massive, which makes it extraordinarily complex to strike the right balance between fighting abuse and speaking truth to power,” Twitter said in a statement. It requires a multi-layered approach where each of our 320 million users has a part to play, as do the community of experts working for safety and free expression,” the statement added.

Hillary Coughing Fit: Again: Hillary Clinton's health is raising questions again after a coughing fit that lasted nearly three minutes during a speech in New York on Tuesday. Clinton was giving a speech at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York when her voice gave out and she struggled for several minutes, alternating between coughing and drinking water before regaining composure.

Monday, February 15, 2016

ELECTION PRIMER: Bill Whittle's 'The Criminal Arrogance of Hillary Clinton':
To get you ready for the 2016 presidential election, TruthRevolt continues its section called 'Election Primer,' in which every few days we reprise some of Bill Whittle's excellent Firewall video commentary. Pundit Whittle, of course, is a longtime viewer favorite at TruthRevolt. In today's video lesson, Whittle looks at the lawlessness, the arrogance, and the unmasked contempt that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have for the American people.

Antonin Scalia, Originalist, 1936 - 2016:
After thirty years serving his country on the highest court in the land, Justice Antonin Scalia died on Saturday, February 13, at the age of 79. He was a towering figure in jurisprudence. He was hated and loved in equal passion. He was a husband, a father, and a grandfather. And he was, in all things, a lover of America.

Friday, February 12, 2016

Dems Override Veto to Give Felons Right to Vote in Maryland:
On Tuesday, Maryland's Democrat-controlled legislature overturned Governor Larry Hogan's (R) veto of a bill that would give voting rights to felons before they complete probation and parole. More than 40,000 felons will now be able to vote in time for the 2016 election:

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Jane Fonda's New Blame-Game: Republicans Responsible for Creating Terrorists:
Republicans are turning moderate Muslims into radical Islamic terrorists, or so says Communist sympathizer Jane Fonda. The aging actress made this baseless claim recently at a women's equality event where she targeted Republican front-runner Donald Trump specifically and his statements about temporarily barring Muslim immigration into the U.S. (via TotalConservative.com):

CA Issues 605,000 Driver's Licenses to Illegal Immigrants:
Just over a year ago, Assembly Bill 60 became the law of the land in California. That meant illegal aliens could apply for a state's driver's license. In the first six months of implementation, almost 400,000 driver's licenses were issued under the new law. Now the California DMV is reporting a total of 605,000 licenses issued to illegals under AB 60.

The Pennsylvania Senate failed to garner two-thirds majority vote to remove indicted Attorney General Kathleen Kane from office thanks to 19 Democrats who voted to stand with their embattled Democratic comrade.

Friday, February 05, 2016

Without that dynamic Martin O'Malley on stage, few people tuned in to watch Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders try to outdo each other in promising free stuff to voters ...Voters Tune Out Dem Debate:
Critics be damned! The viewers had their say in the Democratic debate Thursday, and they didn't watch. While pundits lauded a feisty debate, only 4.5 million people tuned in to see Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton go toe-to-toe, -- or in this case, cane-to-cane -- in New Hampshire. CNN's media reporter Brian Stelter wondered if the low numbers are due to debate fatigue.

On Monday night, the national debt hit a record $19 trillion, an increase of $8.3 trillion (43%) just since President Obama took office.

This is an alarming change, and it’s no wonder that so many Americans feel like their government and their country gone out of control. Not only are we not paying down our debt, we are adding to it all the time.
Just last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report that projects that the federal government will borrow another $544 billion just this year — a sum equivalent to the entire Argentine economy (the 25th largest economy on Earth).

This money will have to be paid back in taxes — there is no way around it. The American people have to live and work with a massive tax increase hanging over their heads. If we all split the bill evenly, we’d each be out over $150,000. To the handful of superrich, that amounts to pocket change. But for the 28% of the country who have no savings at all, and an estimated 62% who have less than $1,000 in savings, that is more than they can afford.

We have the most expensive government in history — at least $19 trillion more government than we can afford. We spend over a quarter of a trillion dollars each year just on interest payments on the debt — money that can’t be spent on education, or on jobs, money that doesn’t feed the poor.

To make matters worse, excess government keeps us from paying our debts by slowing down our economy. We found out last week that the economy dramatically slowed in the last three months to a 0.7% annualized growth rate. The average rate since World War II is five times that. No surprise then that the stock market dropped by over 1,000 points over the same three months.

So as this problem worsens and worsens, we are faced with the same options that we had when our debt was smaller and the situation easier: we can raise taxes, reduce our spending, or grow the economy.

Raising taxes won’t work for the reason just stated: it slows down the economy. Many governments have found that, by raising taxes, they actually get less tax revenue; many others (including Presidents Coolidge, Kennedy, Reagan, and George W. Bush) have found that, by cutting taxes, they have received more revenue. People make decisions based on what lawmakers do. What has happened in high-tax states — a quarter of a million people on net leaving Democrat-run states for Republican states just in 2013 — can happen to entire countries. When people move away, then they pay taxes somewhere else.

Put simply, taxes don’t make government more affordable; they just pay for it. Your check to the electric company pays your bill, but it doesn’t make your bill any easier to pay. Rather, we can make government affordable by making it cost less (reducing spending) and by increasing Americans’ wealth (economic growth).

Spending reduction goes right to the heart of the problem, since every dime spent is a dime that must be paid for with taxes. Reducing spending is reducing cost.

Economic growth means that the amount of value in the economy is increasing. This means that there is more money for raises and benefits, for new jobs, for more investment in research and development, and for buying the goods and services we want. When growth slows down or even stops, that puts more pressure on working people, whose jobs are threatened, and it drives up government borrowing to pay for government activities.

Government can’t create jobs; only growth can create. Government can redirect or redistribute wealth that already exists, but it can’t produce it. Government can’t even cause growth.

What Congress can do, however, is to clear away the roadblocks that bad government policies have set up between the people and economic growth. These include some $2 trillion in regulations on American companies that disproportionately impacts small businesses — and all new businesses are small. Excessive regulations hurt those small businesses that already exist, and often prevent new businesses from coming into existence in the first place. By preventing new economic activity, these regulations prevent growth, and everything that growth gives us.

In light of this alarming situation, our mandate is clear: shrinking government and growing the economy.

We’ve got 19 trillion reasons to do so.

Congressman Joe Pitts is a Republican who represents Pennsylvania’s 16th Congressional District in parts of Berks, Chester and Lancaster counties.

The first Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vehicle auction of 2016 will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 at 10 a.m. More than 200 vehicles will be up for public purchase.

All vehicles can be previewed in-person by the public at Manheim Keystone Pennsylvania, 488 Firehouse Road in Grantville, Dauphin County, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily beginning, Friday, Feb. 5 through Monday, Feb. 8. The auction will be held at the same location.

A selection of sedans, pick-up trucks, SUVs and utility vehicles no longer used by state agencies from manufacturers such as Chevy, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Jeep, Pontiac and others will be available. Seized vehicles from state law enforcement agencies will also be included in this auction.

All revenue generated from the sale of these vehicles is returned to the commonwealth.

The auction will begin at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 9. Registration opens at 8 a.m. and closes at noon. Buyers may purchase with cash or certified funds in the form of money orders, cashier's checks, certified checks or bank checks – all made payable to "Manheim Central Penn Auto Auction."

This is the first vehicle auction of six slated for 2016. For more information on this auction, payment conditions and a complete listing of vehicles, visit the DGS Auto Auction Information page.

Trump Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize:
Donald Trump has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. According to the nominations letter, Trump was nominated for 'his vigorous peace through strength ideology, used as a threat weapon of deterrence against radical Islam, ISIS, nuclear Iran and Communist China.'

Monday, February 01, 2016

Obama to Make First Trip to American Mosque:
On Saturday, the White House announced President Obama will make his first trip to visit an American mosque. The President will tour the Islamic Society of Baltimore and meet with religious leaders to promote 'religious tolerance.'

Under Obama US Drops From 6th to 11th on Economic Freedom Index:
Liberals love to tout their economic policies' 'success' despite the fact that the data do not support their narrative. Indeed, under President Obama, the US has plummeted on the Economic Freedom index to its worst score in history, according to a new study by the Heritage Foundation.

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Why Politics Matter

“Politics, the crooked timber of our communal lives, dominates everything because, in the end, everything – high and low and, most especially, high – lives or dies by politics. You can have the most advanced and efflorescent of cultures. Get your politics wrong, however, and everything stands to be swept away. This is not ancient history. This is Germany 1933.” –– Charles Krauthammer

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About Me

Tony A. Phyrillas is a leading conservative columnist, commentator and blogger based in Pennsylvania.
A veteran newspaperman with 33 years experience as a reporter, editor, photographer and columnist, Phyrillas received a first place award in 2010 for best column from the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors and a first place award in 2007 for Best Opinion Column from Suburban Newspapers of America. He was recognized for column writing in 2007 by the Society of Professional Journalists, Keystone Chapter and in 2006 by the SPJ Greater Philadelphia Chapter.
Phyrillas is ranked among the most influential political bloggers in Pennsylvania by BlogNetNews.com.
Odyssey: The World of Greece magazine named Phyrillas one of the leading Greek-American bloggers in the world.
A Penn State University graduate, Phyrillas is the editor/content manager of The Mercury, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning daily newspaper in Pottstown, Pa.
Phyrillas made frequent appearances on talk radio and as a panelist on the "Journalists Roundtable" program on the Pennsylvania Cable Network.
He co-hosted a weekly radio program on WPAZ 1370 AM for 2 years.